Auto vs. Underwater pre-set / Redwood w/ Canon Pwrsht A650 IS

Basically, I"m a point and shoot person - frequently using Auto. Mostly before with my Powershot S1 IS & now with my Powershot A650 IS which I understand to be similar to a G7 without some frills.

Now ... a few months ago, I met an arborist from Australia who had a pretty nice Nikon and lens, and liked the particular color of his photos.

Short story shorter - I was practicing with SCENE presets on my A650 in a local arboretum, and discovered that the UNDERWATER selection provided tree and forest color much to my liking.

Attached are two images taken of Hyperion the world's tallest tree - the lower trunk.

One with the AUTO is more grey - more true to the actual appearance as seen.

The other image - also unedited - was taken a moment later with the Underwater setting on the camera. Also the A65 IS

Nice example! The underwater scene mode add more red (obviously) to compensate for the natural blue filter of water. Looks like it also increases color saturation. If it works for you, cool. Don't be afraid to experiment with your camera and break the rules as you see fit. They're your photos and they should please you. Personally, I want my photos to show the how a person, place or thing made me feel - not how it actually looked. Often, we add color and significance in our mind. And the camera doesn't necessarily show that. It's my job to figure out how to get that stuff into the photo. And if the underwater mode does it for you, so be it :)

For comparison, thought I'd add an image or two taken from a better camera and lens.

An Australian arborist I met at Rockefeller forest, let me put my SD card in his Nikon with rather deluxe lens and filter - don't know which models exactly. Not sure what settings he adjusted for me - was not auto nor a preset scene mode.

So this image here is from about $2000 dollars worth of camera and lens, compared to the image above from my $400 camera's underwater preset scene mode.

Will add - different parks on different days, but very comparable weather and overcast.

Here's one more with the Canon 650 IS of the tree in the opening post - again with the underwater scene selection - looking upward at it's canopy with grey fog overhead.